About

Sanjay Raja Arwade is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, affiliated with the Riccio College of Engineering. His research areas include smart communities and infrastructure, as well as energy, environment, and water. He has been involved in notable projects such as the ARROW Summer Education Accelerator at UMass Amherst and has been recognized with the Riccio College of Engineering’s Outstanding Faculty Award. His expertise has been sought by major media outlets like The New York Times and BBC as an expert commentator on infrastructure issues, including the Baltimore Bridge Collapse. Dr. Arwade holds a BSE in Civil Engineering from Princeton University, an MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from Cornell University, and his professional focus is on advancing civil engineering practices related to infrastructure resilience and sustainability.

Research topics

• Structural engineering
• Engineering
• Physics
• Materials science
• Geology
• Composite material
• Marine engineering
• Mathematics
• Aerospace engineering
• Geometry
• Mechanical engineering
• Geotechnical engineering
• Meteorology
• Electrical engineering
• Environmental science
• Acoustics

Selected publications

• Grand Challenges in Designing Resilient Wind Energy Systems in Areas Prone to Tropical Cyclones

  2026-02-11

  articleOpen access

  Abstract. Deployment of wind energy systems in cyclone-prone regions faces substantial challenges due to risks posed by tropical cyclones (TCs). These storms can generate extremely high winds and waves that have the potential to cause significant structural damage to turbines, disrupt energy production, and result in major financial losses. As such, it is important to better understand and quantify the risks associated with TCs and adapt design standards and operational guidelines to meet the increased reliability requirements for systems in these high-risk areas. Addressing these challenges requires significant advancements in modeling capabilities, the collection of high-quality data, and the integration of these resources to ensure that wind systems in cyclone-prone regions achieve a level of reliability comparable to systems in less hazardous environments (e.g., the North Sea). This article aims to shed light on the grand challenges in designing resilient wind energy systems in cyclone-prone regions by presenting the current state of research and engineering practices and identifying key research gaps; and to offer recommendations for future work, highlighting the need for enhanced modeling tools, data integration techniques, and more resilient design approaches.

  PublisherDOI

• Spatial variation of parallel to grain tensile strength in sawn lumber

  Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics · 2026-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Influence of Dynamic Characteristics of Monopile Supported Offshore Wind Structures on Fatigue Loading

  Marine Structures · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Design and analysis of shared anchor layouts for floating wind farms in deep waters

  Ocean Engineering · 2025-01-08 · 10 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Multi-parameter analysis of marine growth effects on mooring lines for floating offshore wind

  Ocean Engineering · 2025-08-18 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Comparison of Coupled and Uncoupled Modeling of Floating Wind Farms with Shared Anchors

  Journal of Marine Science and Engineering · 2025-01-08 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  As design options for floating wind farms continue to be explored, shared (or multiline) anchors that secure mooring lines from multiple turbines remain a promising technology that can potentially reduce the number of anchors and overall mooring costs. This study evaluates two methods for analyzing the loads on shared anchors: one in which floating offshore wind turbines are simulated individually (using the software OpenFAST), and one in which an entire floating wind farm is simulated collectively (using the software FAST.Farm). A three-line shared anchor is evaluated for multiple loading scenarios in deep water, using the International Energy Agency 15 MW turbine on the VolturnUS-S semisubmersible platform. While the two methods produce broadly comparable results, the coupled wave loading on platforms within the farm results in wave force cancellations and amplifications that decrease multiline force directional ranges and increase multiline force extreme values (up to 7%) and standard deviations (up to 11%) for wave-driven load cases. The inclusion of wakes in FAST.Farm also reduces the net load on the shared anchor due to the velocity deficit, leading to larger differences between OpenFAST and FAST.Farm (up to 3% difference in mean loads) for load cases with operational turbines.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Computation of Material Property Fields in Heterogeneous and Multi-Material Systems Using Inverse Gauss-Seidel Method

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Promoting Circularity of Building Materials through Novel Structural Systems for Adaptive, Deconstructable Hybrid Steel-CLT Designs

  2025-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Concrete and its steel reinforcement account for up to 50% of the embodied carbon emissions in typical high-rise commercial buildings. Replacing concrete floors with cross-laminated timber can lead to dramatic reductions in embodied carbon, and these reductions can be extended further if steel and CLT elements can be recovered, potentially recertified, and reused in another structural application. Vibrations and noise travel more easily through lightweight timber diaphragm floors compared to concrete slabs. These vibrations are typically reduced by pouring 1-2” of concrete on top of mass-timber floors, which impair the adaptability of the floor-diaphragm systems for deconstruction and reuse. The challenge is to design a system of connections and floor assemblies that provides the requisite structural performance, adherence to Type IV-B building codes for vibration, acoustics, and fire, while still enabling deconstruction and circularity of the structural materials. This submission will present an innovative design strategy for deconstructable, carbon storing buildings that can enable large-scale uptake of CLT into steel-framed commercial projects. Attendees will learn about the engineering and architectural challenges in designing hybrid steel-CLT buildings without typical concrete toppings, and how the proposed design uses novel connections that allow for rapid deconstruction that reduces costs associated with building material reuse. We will also cover the functional structural performance achieved by utilizing high-strength bolted connectors in steel-CLT hybrid structures, supplemented by experimental tests results, and how these results can be used to support major changes to code requirements that would enable deconstructability of an important class of buildings where it is currently rarely done. Finally, the presentation will guide attendees through the environmental benefits of this approach through application of life cycle assessment, but using a dynamic accounting framework that reveals that CLT must stay in use for more than 60 years in order for the prototype building to achieve net zero embodied carbon, either in the original building or reused in a new structure.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The comparative effects of arboricultural cabling, bracing and species-specific morphology on tree biomechanics

  Urban forestry & urban greening · 2025-06-16

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Centrifuge Modeling of the Monotonic Capacity of Offshore Ring Anchors in Clay

  2025-02-27 · 1 citations

  articleCorresponding

  Offshore wind turbines have become a feasible solution to meet the growing demands for renewable energy. However, offshore wind turbines with fixed foundations become increasingly economically and technically unfeasible at locations with large water depth. At these locations, floating platforms supported by mooring system and subsea anchors are a more feasible solution. Deeply embedded ring-shaped anchors can have greater efficiency than piles and caissons and greater capacity than drag anchors. In this paper, the result of a series of monotonic centrifuge load tests in clay is presented, with a focus on evaluation of the effect of loading inclination and anchor embedment depth on the tensile capacity and load-displacement response of the ring anchors. Tests were performed at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM) with a scaling of 70g. The ring anchor models were embedded in normally consolidated kaolin clay. The clay shear strength was estimated from T-bar soundings performed in-flight. The anchors were connected to an actuator using taut steel wire ropes, and the line load, displacement, and inclination were measured. The results indicate that the capacity of the ring anchors increases as the loading inclination changes from vertical to horizontal. Increasing the embedment depth also resulted in an increase in capacity; however, the capacity normalized by the clay’s undrained shear strength is independent of depth. The interaction diagram describing the capacity as a function of load inclination and depth indicates that the ring anchor’s horizontal tensile capacity is much greater than its vertical capacity. Furthermore, analyses also show that the system stiffness increases as the load inclination angle increases. Overall, the results of this study show that the ring anchor could be a potential foundation solution with greater material efficiency than other alternatives.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Adaptive Use of Historic Truss Bridges for Civil Engineering Instruction

  NSF · $150k · 2008–2011

• Collaborative Research: Reliability-based Hurricane Risk Assessment for Offshore Wind Farms

  NSF · $147k · 2012–2016

• Collaborative Research: Reconfiguring Steel Structures: Energy Dissipation and Buckling Mitigation Through the Use of Steel Foams

  NSF · $164k · 2010–2013

• GOALI/Collaborative Research: Efficient Multiline Mooring Systems for Floating Wind Turbines

  NSF · $252k · 2015–2019

• GOALI/Collaborative Research: Advancing System Reliability with Application to Light-Framed Structures

  NSF · $160k · 2013–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Andrew T. Myers

  ORCID

  91 shared

• Jerome F. Hajjar

  Northeastern University

  56 shared

• Wystan Carswell

  47 shared

• Don J. DeGroot

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  44 shared

• Charles Aubeny

  Texas A&M University

  28 shared

• Ryan D. Beemer

  University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

  23 shared

• Spencer T. Hallowell

  University of Maine

  23 shared

• Peggi L. Clouston

  22 shared

Labs

• Riccio College of EngineeringPI

Awards & honors

• ARROW Holds Summer Education Accelerator at UMass Amherst
• CoE Selects Arwade, Beltramo, and Srimathveeravalli for Its…
• The New York Times and BBC Use CEE’s Sanjay Arwade as Expert…